As in the case of extractive reserves, attempts
to manage forests in Amazonia for timber or charcoal production
are in their infancy (FAO 1990: 11; Fearnside 1989c; Kirmse,
Constantino, and Guess 1993; Silva and Uhl 1992; Whitmore 1990:
126). Current wood-harvesting practices for timber in the region
often damage the recuperative capacity of the forest.

Traditionally, most of the lumbering in
Amazonia has been concentrated along rivers where access to
timber is easier. Ucuúba (Virola surinamensis), however, has
been logged out of much of the flood-plain forests. As pioneer
highways started slicing across the uplands in the 1960s, loggers
penetrated deeper into the forest, such as around Itacoatiara
near Manaus, and along feeder roads off BR 364 in Rondônia
(Browder 1989a; Wesche and Bruneau 1990: 59).

The tempo of timber extraction in Amazonia
continues to increase as the regional network of roads expands.
The number of licensed sawmills in the Brazilian Amazon increased
seventeen-fold between 1952 and 1982 (Browder 1989a). Between
1985 and 1987 alone, the number of sawmills operating in the
municipality of Rio Branco in Acre almost doubled, from 23 to 44
(FUNTAC 1990a: 50). In 1973, 287 sawmills and 5 plywood and
veneer plants were registered in the Brazilian Amazon; by 1986,
the number of sawmills and plywood plants had grown to 2,231 and
70, respectively (Yared and Brienza 1989). Between 1975 and 1984,
log production nearly quadrupled in the Brazilian Amazon to 17.4
million m, reaching 24.6 million m by 1988 (Anderson 1987;
Browder 1989a; Silva and Uhl 1992). The North region is now
Brazil's foremost source of industrial sawlogs, and Pará is the
leading producer of timber in the Brazilian Amazon (Homma 1989b).

The advent of larger trucks in the Brazilian
market has increased the effective logging radius of sawmills.
Longer and more powerful trucks, made by such companies as
Mercedes Benz and Volvo, have payloads of 28 tons, in comparison
with the 13-ton capacity typical of yesteryear. Larger trucks can
profitably pick up logs as far away as 200 km, and, by making two
trips a day, can bring back 80 m3 of wood. The smaller trucks are
essentially confined to a 100 km radius from sawmills.

Paragominas, a cattle town founded in the
mid-1960s along the BelémBrasília highway, has emerged as the
most important logging centre in the Brazilian Amazon (fig. 4.3).
In 1992,140 sawmills were operating within the urban fringe of
Paragominas (D. Callegario, pers. comm.). Other major
concentrations of sawmills in Pará are found in the vicinity of
Tailândia along the PA 150 highway, Tucurui and Goianeza, and
around Tomé-Açu. The municipality of Tailândia alone has 73
registered sawmills (W. Kronbauer, pers. comm.).

The quickened pace of the timber trade has
raised questions about the sustainability of logging practices.
In a study of a logging operation near Paragominas, Pará
one-quarter of the trees with a diameter at breast height of at
least 10 cm were killed or severely damaged by logging activities
(Uhf and Vieira 1989). The canopy cover was reduced by half. The
amount of damage from logging appears to vary widely, however. In
parts of Indonesia, loggers sometimes damage as much as 70 per
cent of the remaining trees (Whitten et al. 1987: 480).

Logging does not always damage most of the
trees or destroy half the canopy. If only a few desirable species
are removed, as is typically the case in the Brazilian Amazon,
perhaps only a quarter of the canopy is usually affected. During
a 40 minute overflight of forest patches on heavily logged
ranches near Paragominas in April 1991, only 1030 per cent of the
canopy had been torn open. Light gaps are important for
generating many commercially important timber trees, such as
mahogany (Kirmse, Constantino, and Guess 1993).

Loggers largely ignore regulations designed to
conserve timber resources and protect valuable fruit and nut
trees. Brazil nut trees are avidly sought by sawmills because of
their durable and lustrous red-brown wood. Although it is illegal
to cut down Brazil nut trees, landowners frequently allow loggers
to remove the trees, particularly if they need cash. A Brazil nut
tree can be legally cut down if it is dead or dying or in the way
of urban expansion. In the early 1970s, some Transamazon
colonists deliberately lit fires at the base of Brazil nut trees
to obtain a cash windfall from loggers. In the late 1980s, some
loggers in parts of northern Mato Grosso obtained permits to fell
Brazil nut trees deemed in the way of urban expansion, even
though some of the trees were several kilometres from the nearest
house (Rubens Lima, pers. comm.).

Piquiá, another canopy-emergent in the
Amazonian forest, is also persecuted by loggers even though it
provides a widely appreciated fruit. The light yellow pulp of
piquia fruits is cooked and relished in April and May,
particularly by poorer people. Piquiá also produces an excellent
hardwood, and many trees are converted to handsome yellow-brown
tables, chairs, doors, and dugout canoes.

As the more desirable species become scarce in
heavily logged areas, sawmills shift to second- and third-tier
species. The Rosa Madeireira sawmill in Paragominas, for example,
was working with 58 named timber trees in the early 1990s. Some
common names of timber trees encompass several species: faveira,
a widely used leguminous timber, includes species in several
genera, such as Enterolobium, Macrolobium, Parkia, Piptadenia,
Stryphnodendron, Vataireopsis, and Vatairea. Rosa Madeireira
actually processed over 100 species of timber trees in 1990, some
of which are used for veneer production. In July 1992 alone,
Dalsam Madeiras of Paragominas processed logs from 47 timber
species (table 4.7).

Where road conditions are less favourable, such
as in the Marabá area, sawmills tend to work with fewer, more
valuable species. Madecil Serraria, the largest sawmill in
Marabá, accepts only about 20 species, whereas the smaller
Madeireira Marabá buys or harvests only 10 species (table 4.8).
Ipê, particularly Tabebuia serratifolia, appears to be the most
important timber tree in the Marabá area in terms of volume,
whereas mahogany, known locally as mogno, is the most valuable
species.

Table 4.7 Timber species and volume
processed Into sawlogs at Dalsam Madeiras, Paragominas Pará,
July 1992

Common
name

Scientific
name

No.
of logs

Volume
(m)

Maçaranduba

Manilkara
huberi

667

866

Faveira

Vataireopsis
spp. and various
other Legume genera

125

282

Guajara

Neoxithese
sp.

146

217

Angelim pedra

Hymenolobium
petraeum

64

161

Piquiá

Caryocar
villosum

52

136

Mandioqueira

Qualea spp.

62

130

Quarubatinga

Vochysia
guianensis

71

129

Ipê

Tabebuia spp.

49

117

Estopeiro

Couratari sp.

61

117

Jatobá

Hymenaea
courbaril

64

103

Uxi

Endopleura
uchi

54

79

Louro
vermelho

Nectadra
rubra

32

73

Cupiúba

Goupia glabra

36

72

Taxi

Species
of Tachigalia and
Sclerolobium

40

66

Quaruba cedro

Vochysia sp.

34

66

Tatajuba

Bagassa
guianensis

25

62

Tanibuca

Terminalia
sp.

28

51

Louro canela

Ocotea
dissimilis

26

48

Amesclão

Trattinickia
buserifolia

18

47

Pau roxo

Peltogyne
lecointe

21

45

Corrúpiza

Rauwalfia
paraensis

27

44

Piquiarana

Caryocar
glabrum

19

44

Caju

Anacardium
sp.

19

41

Murure

Trymotococus
pararnsis

15

40

Amapá

Parahancornia
Amapá

28

40

Timborana

Pseudopiptadenia
sp.

25

37

Angelim
vermelho

Dinizia
excelsa

11

36

Burangi

?

13

26

Tamaquaré

Caraipa
densifolia

17

26

Sapucaia

Lecythis sp.

15

24

Copaíba

Copaifera
multijuga

16

23

Sucupira pele
de sapo

Diplotropis
sp.

20

23

Orelha de
macaco

Enterolobium
schomburgkii

10

17

Muiracatiara

Astronium
gracile

13

16

Jarana

Holopyzidium
jarana

9

15

Goiabão

Planchonella
pachycarpa

12

11

Ciringarana

?

6

9

Cumaru

Dipteryx
odorata

6

9

Imbirucu

?

5

8

Morototo

Didymopanex
morototoni

4

7

Ingá

Didymopanox
morototoni

4

6

Araracanga

Inga sp.

2

3

Marupa

Aspidosperrna
sp.

1

2

Iare

Simarupa
amara

1

2

Angelim fava

Helicostylis?

1

2

Tuere

Hymenolobium
sp.

1

1

TOTAL

?

3,379

Source: Dalsam Madeiras, Paragominas, Pará,
August 1992.

One of the common perceptions about logging in
Amazonia is that it is geared primarily to the export trade,
particularly to industrial countries. In fact, most tropical
timber is harvested for domestic consumption; less than onethird
of tropical roundwood and processed wood is typically exported
(Atkin 1993; Vincent 1992). International trade accounts for a
diminishing share of consumption of tropical timber (Vincent
1992).

Although it is true that some of the premier
woods, such as mahogany, are largely sent abroad, much of the
timber production in Amazonia is for the domestic market (fig.
4.4). In the Paragominas area, sawmills send about 80 per cent of
their production to markets in central and southern Brazil, such
as Rio, Espírito Santo, Belo Horizonte, and in the North-east
region. Dalsam Madeiras, a mediumsized sawmill in Paragominas,
sends 80 per cent of its production to markets within Brazil. An
estimated 90 per cent of the timber sawn at Tailandia is sent to
national markets (W. Kronbauer, pers. comm.). Further south along
the PA 150 highway in Marabá, Madeireira Marabá, one of about
20 sawmills in the rapidly growing town as of 1992, also
dispatches 90 per cent of its planks to the Brazilian market,
divided roughly equally between the North-east region and the
South region (Sinisvaldo Mota, pers. comm.). In spite of the
recession, de mend is growing for lower-quality timber for
general construction purposes, such as moulds for concrete.

Table 4.8 Some timber species processed
by sawmills in Marabá, Pará, 1992

Madeireira

Local name

Scientific
name

Madecil

Marabá

Angelim pedra

Hymenolobium
petraeum

+

Cedro

Cedrela
odorata

+

+

Cedroarana

Cedrelinga
cateniformis and/or
Scleronema micranthum

+

Cumaru

Dipteryx
odorata

+

Inhare

Helicostylis
sp.

+

Ipê

Tabebuia spp.

+

+

Jatobá

Hymenuea
courharil

+

+

Maçaranduba

Manilkara
huberi

+

Maracatiara

Astronium
lecointei?

+

Melanceiro

?

+

Mogno

Swietenia
macrophylla

+

Pitiuba

?

+

Sucupira

Bowdichia
nitida

+

+

Tatajuba

Bagassa
guianensis

+

+

The increased logging activity may ironically
help save some forest stands. In the vicinity of Paragominas, for
example, several ranchers have halted deforestation on their
properties because of rising income derived from periodically
selling logging rights to sawmills. The owner of Fazenda São
João, which has 600 ha of pasture, "sold" his 400 ha
of forest to sawmill operators in 1982, 1986, and 1988. Although
the forest on the São João ranch was unlikely to yield
sufficiently valuable timber to justify logging three more times
in the 1990s, the shift to less desirable species means that
cutting cycles of around a decade could generate reasonably high
levels of supplemental income. In some cases, income derived from
logging has been reinvested to upgrade pastures.

Another notable trend is for sawmills to
acquire and manage land. In part, this shift to forest management
is in response to the requirements of IBAMA for sawmills to have
a "management plan" in order to operate, or to
contribute to a fund for purchasing national forests. IBAMA has
few inspectors to verify if such plans are being carried out, and
one sawmill operator was curious why the national government had
not done more to acquire forests for lease to timber companies.
Demand for expertise in forest management is particularly strong
in the vicinity of Paragominas, since many of the sawmills also
own ranches with sizeable portions of their land still in forest.
Offices have sprung up in various towns in the Brazilian Amazon,
such as Marabá offering services in devising "forest
management plans."

How well forests are being managed is unclear.
In theory at least, blocks of forest are harvested on a
rotational basis and care is taken to avoid damaging seedlings.
At least some of the sawmills concerned with their long-term
survival are apparently taking seriously the need to harvest
trees in a rational manner. The larger sawmills, in contrast to
the small, mobile ones, are more likely to practice some form of
forest management because they often own land and have a greater
fixed investment.

In the case of Paragominas, many of the
sawmills own ranch or farm land with stands of forest. Dalsam
Madeiras, for example, owns two ranches with a total area of
11,500 ha, 10,000 ha of which are in forest. Blocks of forest are
logged on a rotational basis and most trees are cut only if they
are larger than 1.2 metres in circumference. The more valuable
species, such as ipê, sucupira (Bowdichia nitida), and freijó
(Cordia goeldiana), are felled even if they are smaller than 1.2
metres in circumference. Near Tailândia, the W.K. Brasil sawmill
owns 2,778 ha of forest, of which 1,000 ha are currently managed.
Half of the sawmills in Tailandia now own forest (W. Kronbauer,
pers. comm.).

The Madeireira Marabá sawmill processes some
12,000 m of logs a year and has a project to manage 3,500 ha.
With a yield of some 40 m/ha in the forests within 200 km, this
medium-sized sawmill harvests timber from some 300 ha annually.
The 3,500 ha management area is unlikely to sustain a cutting
cycle of about 12 years for long. Tropical foresters generally
recommend longer cycles, such as 70 years in the case of the
dipterocarp forests of Indonesia (Whitten et al. 1987: 481). One
problem that sawmills are encountering with acquiring land for
forest management is that definitive title to large holdings must
be approved by Congress, a time-consuming, expensive, and
unpredictable process.

At km 101 of the Santarém-Cuiabá Highway,
CEMEX (Comercial Madeiras Exportação, S.A.) owns 6,900 ha,
mostly in forest, of which 2,930 ha are managed on a 12-30-year
cutting cycle (fig. 4.5). On the first cutting cycle, 70 m are
removed; it is not known whether this relatively high extraction
rate is sustainable, since CEMEX has been managing forest for
only six years. The minimum size at which trees are harvested
varies by species: jatobá (Hymenaea courbaril), for example, is
allegedly cut only when its diameter at breast height (dbh)
reaches 60 cm, whereas ipê and virola (Virola sp.) are felled
when they reach a dbh of 45 cm and 25 cm, respectively (José
Baranek, pers. comm.). Trees with obvious defects, such as
twisted trunks, are left as seed sources, while a few undesirable
species, such as taxi preto (Tachigalia paniculata) and abiurana
(various species of Chrysophyllum, Pouteria, Radlkoferela,
Ecclinusa, and Micropholis), are ringed.

If the prime specimens are cut, the quality of
the forest from the viewpoint of commercial timber is likely to
decline as the inferior stock remains to reproduce (Whitten,
Mustafa, and Henderson 1987: 441). From the genetic variation
standpoint, it would probably make better sense to leave a random
mixture of poor to excellent specimens. At the headwaters of some
streams, 110 ha have been set aside as a forest reserve. If such
reserves were larger, they could serve as important seed sources
for re-stocking or genetic improvement in the future.

Another management technique is to cut all
vines and lianas in a plot when trees are harvested, but the
impact of such measures on pollinators and seed dispersal agents
is unknown. In Sumatra, climbing plants are significant food
sources for primates, such as orangutan and gibbons (Whitten et
al. 1987: 481). It could be argued that timber companies are not
in the business of managing forests for monkey populations, but
at least the ecological implications of vine removal warrant
further study. Whenever feasible, managed forests should serve as
refuges for wildlife. Managed forest at CEMEX appears to be
fulfilling this role at least partially, since jaguar cubs have
been encountered by workers when preparing plots for harvesting.
Another factor to consider is that vines may pump significant
amounts of ground water to the canopy (Nepstad et al. 1991).

Skidders cause much less damage to remaining
trees than do bulldozers, so CEMEX employs two skidders to remove
logs from the forest. Skidders are equipped with large lyres
rather than moving tracks and thus disturb the topsoil less than
do bulldozers. The skidders drag logs to small clearings where
they are cut into sections for loading on to trucks.

CEMEX began two reforestation/forest enrichment
projects in 1989. Reforestation is being attempted in second
growth, while enrichment planting with mahogany is being carried
out in an adjacent patch of logged forest. By the end of 1992,
some 200 ha were planted with a mixture of valuable timber trees.
Second growth is slashed and mulched, while the larger trees are
ringed. In the logged forest, par allel lines are cut through the
semi-open forest and timber seedlings are planted at regular
intervals. Mahogany is the most commonly planted tree (table
4.9), in part because it does not occur naturally in this part of
Amazonia. Only a few of the mahogany seedlings have been attacked
by Hypsipyla grandella, a moth larva that tunnels into the
growing shoot, thereby retarding growth and provoking defects in
the trunk. This pest is more likely to be a problem when mahogany
is planted in monospecific stands.

Table 4.9 The annual planting of timber
species species second-growth and logged forest at CEMEX, km 101
Santarém-Cuiabá, Pará

Common
name

Scientific
name

Seedlings
planted/yr

Mogno

Swietenia
macrophylla

287,500

Cedro

Cedrela
odorata

71,875

Cumaru

Dipteryx
odorata

71,875

Freijó

Cordia
goeldiana

71,875

Ipê

Tabebuia
serratifolia

71,875

Note: Smaller quantities of andiroba, tatajuba,
jatobá (Hymenaea sp.), piquiá (Caryocar villosum), gumbeira,
and virola are also being planted in second growth.

Although owning forest land provides some
incentive for more sustainable logging practices, it remains to
be seen how successful the management techniques employed by the
sawmills in Para will be, and whether the land will eventually be
converted to non-forest uses. A key issue in sustainable forest
management for timber production is the duration between
harvests. The longer it takes for the forest to regenerate
commercially harvestable timber, the less likely it is that
landowners will be interested in saving their forests. The owner
of São João ranch near Paragominas may have to wait decades
before another sizeable harvest of timber is possible in the
remaining forest stand on his property. In the Philippines, for
example, 30-45 years typically pass before forests are
selectively logged again (Schmidt 1987). How short one can make
the cutting cycles depends on a variety of factors, such as the
proximity of desirable timber species remaining to re-seed logged
areas, soil fertility, the degree of damage to seedlings and soil
structure, and changes in marketing opportunities for hardwoods.

One of the greatest disincentives to managing
forest for timber production in Amazonia and many other parts of
tropical America is that other land uses are often more
profitable (Kishor and Constantino 1993). The proliferation of
pioneer highways and feeder roads in Amazonia during the past
three decades has made it cheaper to obtain timber along the
agricultural frontier rather than to manage forests. While it is
still possible to gain access to mature forests and
"cream" the valuable timber, few landholders will want
to invest in sustainable harvesting of timber. Rather than open
any new roads in Amazonia, efforts might be made to improve
existing ones by repairing bridges and side-roads. Incentives are
also needed to foster attempts to manage forests for timber and
other products.

Few models for sustained management of tropical
forests for timber production are available to guide policy
makers in Amazonia (Perl et al. 1991; Westoby 1989: 37). Members
of the International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA) have agreed
that tropical timber should be sustainably harvested by the year
2000, whereas only 1 per cent is thought to be sustainably
managed today. In 1991, a truck headed for the Belém port loaded
with wood was stamped "Ecological Wood." A veritable
industry could soon start, with organizations certifying that
wood has been harvested "sustainably." Clever public
relations cannot disguise the fact that the scientific
underpinnings for forest management are wanting. Labels attesting
to the sustainability of harvesting methods for a product may not
mean much if there is not some independent review board for
making such assertions. Monitoring the harvest of tropical timber
to verify environmentally sound techniques will be costly.

For the time being, one can only grasp at a few
cases that shed some light on the potential for harvesting timber
from forests in humid tropics. In one part of Surinam, for
example, selective logging with carefully planned skid trails and
the poisoning of non-commercial trees can produce timber harvests
of 20 m3 per hectare every two decades (Graaf 1982). Given the
dispersed nature of highly desirable timber trees (Anderson
1987), sustained management of forests in Amazonia would appear
to be a low-yield operation.

International markets could be developed for
some of the lesser-known timber trees, but dealers like reliable
supplies in order to cultivate a new product. Considerable
research is needed on potential timber trees and rational
harvesting methods that offer reasonable economic returns. Of the
more than 700 promising timber species in Amazonian forests, only
10 species accounted for more than 60 per cent of the saw and
veneer log production in the region during the 1980s (Anderson
1987).

The Yanesha Forestry Cooperative at Palcazu in
the Peruvian Amazon could provide some useful insights into
sustainable timber harvesting in tropical forests. With technical
assistance from the Tropical Science Centre in San José, Costa
Rica, the Peruvian Foundation for the Conservation of Nature
(FPCN), and the World Wildlife Fund, the Yanesha clear-cut narrow
strips from 20 to 40 metres wide in the forest. In order to
minimize disturbance of the topsoil and damage to remaining trees
and seedlings, the Yanesha use cattle to extract timber from
their 75,000 ha reserve in the Palcazu valley. A 40-year rotation
is envisaged for this pilot project (Earhart 1990). Financial
assistance is provided by a variety of donors, including the
World Wildlife Fund and the US Agency for International
Development (Perl et al. 1991:13).

It would be premature to suggest that the
Yanesha experience can serve as a model. Wood produced by such
methods may be more expensive than from other timber suppliers.
For the time being at least, the timber output from the Palcazu
project is modest, destined mostly for artisans and local
furniture makers. A contract to supply chemically treated poles
for the state telephone company provides some additional income,
but the entire operation is still subsidized. Furthermore, cattle
pasture usually entails clearing forest, and the sawmill at the
Yanesha mill is fuelled by diesel rather than waste wood. Yanesha
lands are communally owned, thus making it easier to establish
strips for harvesting. It could be difficult to arrange for strip
harvesting on a checkerboard pattern of small, privately own lots
with varying patterns of land clearance.

Start-up funds are usually necessary for pilot
projects in forest management, but the acid test for
sustainability is whether such ventures can be successfully
weaned from external financial support. If "green"
companies proliferate, or legislation restricts the importation
of tropical timber harvested unsustainable, then natural forest
management will have a better chance of succeeding. The
Ecological Trading Company in the United Kingdom and Luthier
Mercantile in California are customers for timber from the
Yanesha Forestry Cooperative, but many more such companies will
need to come forward to buy forest products obtained on an
allegedly sustainable basis.

Sawmill linkages with other land-use systems

By-products from sawmills are used in other
land-use systems. In the Santarém area, sawdust is given to
farmers on both terra firma and the Amazon flood plain. The
sawdust is employed to help conserve soil moisture and suppress
weeds, rather than to supply nutrients.

Upland farmers mound sawdust around black
pepper plants, while some vegetable growers on the Amazon flood
plain scatter sawdust in tomato beds. In the Marabá area, scrap
wood from some sawmills is converted into charcoal for COSIPAR, a
pig-iron smelter. Sawmills benefit from this arrangement because
they reduce their waste disposal problem.

Charcoal production for pig-iron smelting

Charcoal production has emerged as an important
land-use activity in the Marabá area within the past decade.
Furthermore, the preparation of charcoal has close linkages with
other land uses, and it has the potential to alter landscapes
dramatically. In most areas of Amazonia, charcoal is used
extensively for cooking, in both urban and rural areas.

In order to generate more domestic employment,
plans were drawn up to smelt some of the iron ore from Carajás
along the railroad to Itaqui. This 900 km railroad was built in
the early 1980s to export minerals, particularly iron ore and
manganese, to a deep-water port near São Luis in Maranhão. All
told, some 23 pig-iron smelters were planned for construction
along the railroad, with charcoal as the main source of energy.
In addition, charcoal is used in the reduction process. Natural
vegetation was envisaged as the main source of charcoal, at least
in the initial stages of production.

The spectre of 23 pig-iron smelters
concentrated along a relatively thin strip of south-east Amazonia
immediately sparked concern about deforestation and potentially
adverse impacts on other land-use systems, such as swidden
farming by small-scale colonists and indigenous groups. A single
pig-iron smelter would require as much as 100,000 ha of forest
for sustainable charcoal production, based on the annual
production of a typical pig-iron smelter in the region and a
charcoal yield of 30 tons/ha in forest.

Pig-iron smelters planned along the
Carajás-Itaqui railroad could result in the destruction of 1,500
km of forest each year (Anderson 1990a). On a small scale, the
harvesting of native forests for charcoal makes sense, since
production costs are low. On a large industrial scale, however,
the vast areas of forest needed to sustain harvesting preclude
other potentially more productive uses of the landscape and could
lead to serious ecological degradation. In the case of pig-iron
smelters along the Carajas-Itaqui railroad, for example, some of
the densest groves of Brazil nut trees would be lost. At current
market prices for pig-iron, plantations of fast-growing exotics,
such as eucalyptus, would not be economically viable.

How much forest will eventually be cleared to
satisfy the pig smelters is unclear. Iron smelting destroyed much
of the oak woodlands of Sussex in England during the Middle Ages,
some of which subsequently grew back (Perlin 1989: 168, 177,
189). Earlier, the Romans had cleared much of the forests from
south-eastern England for agriculture and to reduce cover for
hostile groups. The loss of plant and animal resources will be
much greater with the disappearance of forest along the
Carajas-Itaqui railroad should all the planned pig-iron smelters
come on line.

Thus far, only four pig-iron smelters have been
built along the railroad, two on the outskirts of Marabá and the
other two further east at Acailandia. Only one of the pig-iron
smelters near Marabá was operating in 1992. The three pig-iron
smelters currently on line have not accelerated deforestation
since the wood is coming from sawmills and from branches and
trunks left in fields by swidden farmers (World Bank 1992: 30).

How many pig-iron smelters will be built is
uncertain. Brazil's desire to process some of the iron ore to
generate jobs is commendable, but it seems unlikely that the
projected production goal of 16 million tons of pig iron a year
will be reached by 2010 (Treece 1989). Even if electricity from
the Tucurui dam provides much of the energy for melting the iron
ore, charcoal is still needed for the reduction process.

Uncertainties about whether or not the forest
would be managed on a rational basis provoked fears that large
blocks of woodland would perish, thereby undercutting the
subsistence base of numerous farmers and compromising future
options for development and conservation. For a variety of
reasons, including a deep recession and heightened concerns about
the environmental and social costs of large-scale charcoal
production from the Amazon rain forest, only a handful of pigiron
smelters are currently functioning.

Before exploring the social and environmental
implications of pigiron smelters and highlighting some pertinent
research questions, a brief description of current charcoal
production can provide insights into interactions with other
land-use systems. Charcoal-makers are at the lowest end of the
socio-economic ladder, sharing this tenuous position in society
with itinerant miners. Fishermen and sharecroppers are next on
the societal ladder. Still, movement between these
"lower" strata is brisk and frequent, as people move on
to other opportunities and thus leave one form of employment for
another. At least some of the charcoal-makers come from Minas
Gerais, a state where cerrado trees and eucalyptus plantations
are converted to charcoal for the steel industry. Other
charcoal-makers are from Pará and Maranhão, and have been
engaged previously in a range of activities such as farming and
fishing.

Charcoal-makers own no land (fig. 4.6). They
work on the lots and ranches of others, and pay landlords a
percentage of the value of the charcoal produced. In turn,
landlords allow the charcoal-makers to live temporarily on their
land, and to collect wood left over after burning forest or old
second growth. Landowners often provide tangible assistance, such
as a bullock and cart, power saws, and bricks to build the ovens.
At Sitio Sapecado, a 90 ha property along a side-road leading
from km 35 of the PA 150 highway south of Marabá 10 ovens are in
production. Charcoal-makers are generally organized into groups,
which range in size depending on the number of ovens on the
property; a work group can range from as few as 2 men to 20 or
more. Families who accompany charcoal-makers build make-shift
homes on the property, but generally do not grow any crops.

Each dome-shaped oven is designed to produce
1.5 tons of charcoal a week. Wood, cut into 1 to 1.5 metre
lengths, is stacked inside the oven and then allowed to burn for
two days. The temperature of the burn is controlled by blocking
some of the holes in the side and bottom of the oven. After the
charcoal has formed, the oven cools for three days before the
charcoal is taken out. Large trucks pick up the charcoal and take
it to COSIPAR, which began smelting in 1986. COSIPAR pays
US$9/ton for charcoal at the "farm gate." Another
pig-iron smelter in Marabá SIMAR, is apparently slated to come
back on line in the near future; if this occurs, greater
competition may boost the price paid for charcoal.

Charcoal production interacts with three other
main land uses in the Marabá area: swidden agriculture,
ranching, and sawmills. In the first, charcoal producers remove
branches and the smaller logs remaining after fields are burned
for subsistence crops such as rice, maize, beans, and manioc. In
this regard the removal of the wood could reduce the amount of
nutrients and organic matter entering agro-ecosystems.
Furthermore, scattered logs and branches help check soil erosion
in swidden fields, which is particularly important in the case of
steep slopes or plots cleared on sandy soils. In the case of
ranching, landholders employ charcoal-makers to help defray the
cost of clearing land. In exchange for preparing as much charcoal
as they can, the temporary workers agree to plant pasture seed at
the appropriate time, usually as the rains are beginning.
Increasingly, the rancher or farmer supplies the grass seed,
usually Brachiaria brizantha. This process is well developed in
other parts of the humid tropics in Latin America, such as in the
highlands of Costa Rica. Sawmills appear to be a significant
source of wood for charcoal-making for use in pig-iron smelting,
but hard data on the relative contribution of wood from the three
land-use systems for charcoal production are lacking. One point
is clear, however: forest is not currently being cut down solely
for charcoal production.

Silviculture for charcoal production

In response to the requirements of IBAMA that
consumers of wood must either manage forest on a sustainable
basis or replant, COSIPAR has recently established a project to
plant eucalyptus to supply the charcoal ovens. As of November
1992, COSIPAR had planted 400 ha of eucalyptus, mainly Eucalyptus
urophylla, along a side-road leading from km 35 of the PA 150
highway south of Marabá A further 800 ha of eucalyptus was
slated for planting in 1993. All plantings are in second growth.
Three fertilizer treatments of 65 g of triple super phosphate are
applied to the trees according to the following schedule: when
the seedlings are planted; at 45 days; and then again three
months after planting.

It is unlikely that eucalyptus plantings for
charcoal will be a viable proposition in Amazonia for the near
future. At Jari, over 20,000 ha of eucalyptus have been planted
for pulp production, a relatively high-value product. The
abundance of forest and old second growth in the Marabá area, as
well as the high cost of labour and inputs, undercut the economic
viability of silviculture for charcoal. When the pioneer front
has moved on and naturally occurring wood becomes more scarce,
silviculture for biomass fuel might become a more attractive
investment.

Two ways to help make biomass plantations more
promising are to select superior germ plasm and to incorporate
other crops and/or livestock. A few hectares of the COSIPAR
plantation are intercropped with pasture, a common practice in
Minas Gerais where most of the natural woodlands have long since
been cleared. Nevertheless, substantial subsidies would likely be
needed to accelerate eucalyptus plantings for charcoal production
in the twentieth century in the Marabá area.

Perhaps natural regeneration could be managed
by the addition of some quick-growing nitrogen-fixing trees, such
as species of Gliricidia. If ashes from smelters are not returned
to the land, fertilizers will eventually be needed. The economics
and ecological implications of large-scale charcoal production in
Amazonia are currently being investigated by CVRD in
collaboration with scientists from Brazil and abroad. Large-scale
monocultures for charcoal production are unlikely to become
economically attractive ventures in the near term; perhaps
managed second growth could satisfy some of the market for
charcoal.

Another possibility would be small-scale
agro-forestry, in which farmers grow fast-growing trees for
charcoal alongside food and other cash crops (Shaeff1990: 95). An
advantage of such an agroforestry approach is that it would
involve many of the small farmers in the region and could be
incorporated into existing farming systems. Farmers would need
technical support for such a venture, however, and research would
be needed on appropriate trees. Agro-forestry systems are
unlikely, however, to supply sufficient charcoal for 22 pigiron
smelters, let alone many of the other enterprises in the Marabá
area that draw on charcoal supplies. Some 4 million metric tons
of charcoal would be needed annually to supply the planned
pigiron smelters, cement plants, and other industries during the
1990s (Shaeff 1990: 7).